PHILADELPHIA — Michael Carter-Williams’ night ended better than it began, which isn’t even a knock.

Hours after being named the league’s top rookie in the month of November, Carter-Williams picked up the first triple-double of his career, rescuing the 76ers in a 126-125 double-overtime victory Tuesday night over the Orlando Magic.

With frequent overtime contributor Evan Turner fouled out and on the bench for most of the second overtime session, Carter-Williams was forced to take control. He hit a free throw, then a driving layup, then fed Thaddeus Young for a bucket. The latter locked up Carter-Williams’ triple-double of 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

The Sixers (7-12), who snapped a four-game skid, coughed up a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter and a five-point advantage in the first overtime period.

Advertisement

Orlando’s Glen Davis canned a huge 3-pointer, his first trey since April 2012, to tie the game at 104-all with 18 seconds to go in regulation. And the Magic’s Arron Afflalo made three foul shots with 12.1 seconds left in the first extra session, after being fouled on a long-range attempt by Turner.

A night after making only one of eight attempts in a loss at Washington, Davis was unstoppable for the Magic. He bullied the Sixers throughout the game, turning in 33 points on 15-for-24 shooting. Similarly devastating was Afflalo, who led all scorers with 43 points.

Neither prevented the Sixers from ending a season-long slide. Orlando (6-12), meanwhile, lost its third straight.

Carter-Williams learned less than 15 minutes before tipoff that he had been named the Eastern Conference’s Rookie of the Month for leading all first-year players in scoring, assists and steals in the season’s first month.

Yet the kid found a way to top that accomplishment.

Moreover, Carter-Williams outdueled the Magic’s Victor Oladipo, the second overall pick in last summer’s draft. Oladipo also had a phenomenal game, logging 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. For the first time in NBA history, two rookies directly opposing one another each turned in a triple-double.

Hot starts haven’t been an integral facet to the Sixers’ game. So when Spencer Hawes hit a first-quarter 3-pointer, marking 18 straight games with a trey, and Hollis Thompson, making his second career start, knocked down his first three attempts, things were looking up.

So much for that.

Orlando went on a tear from that point on. At one point, the Magic had upped their first-half field-goal percentage to 72.7 percent, on a jumper from Glen Davis at the top of the key. That gave the Magic their largest lead of the first half, at 45-36, and had them shooting 16-for-22.

Even in missing 10 of its final 16 shots to head into halftime, Orlando still was shooting at a 57.9-percent clip.

The Sixers rallied following that Davis bucket. They went on an 11-4 run in the next two minutes, closing to within one of the lead. They eventually pulled ahead of the Magic with Turner hitting the back end of his two free-throw attempts with four minutes to play in the half. A Turner steal and a Carter-Williams scoop shot in transition helped the Sixers take the lead and carry it into the break.

They led Orlando, 58-57, at intermission.

In pregame, Sixers coach Brett Brown talked at length about his willingness to permit Thaddeus Young and Hawes to fire away from 3-point range. At no point did Brown say anything about Hawes’ need to rebound.

It was particularly perplexing that the 7-footer Hawes had only one board, an offensive rebound on a tip-in, by the midpoint of the third quarter.

It was even more alarming that despite Hawes’ inability to clean up the glass, the Sixers still managed to stake a third-quarter lead that crept to as many as nine points.

Two mind-numbing errors on the Sixers’ end helped Orlando pull within five, at 85-80, heading into the fourth.

First, Lavoy Allen strayed from his man for defensive help on the left side of the lane. That left Davis open and able to corral a loose-ball rebound for an easy layup. And after a Sixers turnover with four seconds to go in the third, the Magic inbounded to Oladipo, who cut through four defenders for a gimme layup as time expired.

Never mind that he coasted past all but one of the Sixers for an uncontested bucket...or that the Sixers had a foul to give in the period, and could have prevented it.